Environmental groups sue to stop wolverine trapping

Several environmental groups filed a suit in state court to stop the trapping of wolverines. Montana is the only state in the Lower 48 that allows trapping of wolverines.

The state has a quota system in place — last year trappers took two wolverines out of a quota of five statewide. But even those low harvest numbers are too many, the groups claim.

“Wolverines are tough animals, but they need all the help they can get right now in the face of a warming planet with shrinking and increasingly fragmented habitat,” said Matthew Bishop, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, which is representing the groups. “Trapping wolverine under these circumstances is making an already bleak situation worse.”

In 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that listing wolverines under the Endangered Species Act was warranted but precluded because other species had a higher priority. According to the agency, wolverine trapping in Montana, when combined with other existing threats, “may contribute to the likelihood that the wolverine will become extirpated in the foreseeable future by increasing the speed with which small populations of wolverine are lost from isolated habitats, and also by increasing mortality levels for dispersing wolverines that are required to maintain the genetics and demographics of wolverine populations in the contiguous United States.”

The environmental groups filed a petition this summer asking the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission to stop wolverine trapping, but the commission took no formal action. The groups in turn sued in Lewis and Clark County District Court.

Plaintiffs to the suit include Swan View Coalition, Friends of the Wild Swan, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Montana Ecosystem Defense Council, Native Ecosystems Council, Helena Hunters and Anglers, Wildearth Guardians, Footloose Montana and George Wuerthner.

The groups claim about 100-175 wolverines likely remain in Montana and the effective population — the number of wolverines able to contribute to the next generation — is dangerously low, less than 35.

Glacier National Park is considered a bastion for wolverines. About 50 wolverines are thought to live in the Park. The animals den in woody snags under deep snow, which helps protect the young. The worry is that with climate change, the snowpack will melt earlier and earlier, reducing the animals’ denning areas.

The environmental groups claim wolverine trapping is a major source of mortality outside of national parks. In one study spanning a three-year period, of the 14 wolverines researchers were following in the Pioneer Mountains, six were killed in traps, including four adult males and two pregnant females, eliminating half of the estimated wolverine population in the area.

In the past, FWP has maintained that trapping seasons are exempt under the Montana Administrative Procedure Act.

“We have no plans to adjust the season,” FWP spokesman Ron Aasheim said. “We think the season is reasonable.”

Aasheim noted that FWP decreased the quota from 10 to five animals in 2008.

The groups, however, claim that FWP has a mandatory duty to ensure it is managing wolverines “in a manner that prevents the need for listing” under the Endangered Species Act. The wolverine trapping season should be stopped, the groups argue, or FWP should provide evidence justifying a trapping season.